The present investigation was carried out to study the performance of yield and growth parameters of tomato crop under different mulching materials. This experiment was conducted at Vikas College of Engineering and Technology, Nunna, Vijayawada during the period from Jan 2020 to April 2020. The experimental field has an area of 180 m2 (15m × 12m) and divided into 4 plots i.e., Drip with plastic mulch (A), Drip with live mulch (coconut coir) (S), Drip without mulch (M) and Control (without mulch and without drip) (K). Growth parameters like plant height, number of leaves per plant, soil parameters like bulk density, soil temperature, soil moisture and yield were observed for each treatment. Crop water requirement was calculated using CROPWAT 8.0. The results showed that the bulk density has no effect between the treatment plots. The soil moisture in initial stage is more in K and least in S; in flowering stage, M was high and least in K and in harvesting stage, it is high in A. The soil temperature was high in K and least in A. The readings of number of leaves was observed high in A and least in K. It was observed that highest yield was obtained in A and least in K. The weed control efficiency was found to be highest in A (57%) followed by S (41.3%) and weed control efficiency was lowest in M (22.8%).

Mushroom may be baked, fried, boiled, creamed, roasted, pickled and stuffed. In India, it is mainly consumed fresh and a negligible amount is used for processing. They can be processed as canned, dried and frozen mushrooms. The dried mushrooms are packed in hermetically sealed air tight tins for quality retention and stored in a cool dry place. The study’s main objective is to know the effect of different drying methods on the quality of mushrooms and its dehydration, rehydration characteristics. Sun-drying and Cabinet tray drying methods were selected in the study. The rehydration ratio and coefficient of rehydration were calculated and compared for both the drying methods. An expert Committee did an Organoleptic evaluation. The results showed that cabinet tray dried mushrooms were reconstituted better compared to the sundried ones. The values of coefficient of rehydration and the rehydration ratio for cabinet dried mushrooms were found as 0.498 and 1:3.3 which were higher than sundried mushrooms. Cabinet tray dried mushrooms showed it’s superiority in sensory assessment. The study concluded that mushrooms dehydrated by the cabinet tray drying have better rehydration characteristics than sun drying.

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